I'm a full time engineer. I have real estate license and materially participated. Is my full time job also count towards personal service time provided during the year?

[bigfoot]

I work 40hrs per week as engineer, and 15 hrs in real estate business, taking care of rental property, showing properties, negotiating contracts. I don't quite understand if I meet the requirement for real estate professional: more than one-half of the personal services you provided during the year were performed in a real property trade or business in which you materially participated. how to calculate the personal service time? For me, it's 55 hrs per week, or it's 15 hrs per week? Does my full time job also count?

[RichardG]

That depends on the nature of your work.  A real property trade or business is any business that involves property:

 - Development

 - Construction

 - Redevelopment

 - Reconstruction

 - Acquisition

 - Conversion

 - Rental operation

 - Management

 - Leasing

 - Brokerage

If your job falls in one of these categories, keep in mind that IRS rules state that " Do not count personal services you perform as an employee in real property trades or businesses unless you are a 5% owner of your employer."

[bigfoot]

My 40hr employee work has nothing to do with real estate business. But my 15hr work does. So what's my total personal service time? 15hr or 55hr?

[RichardG]

15

[bigfoot]

Thanks! So I have met the IRS definition of real estate professional, because 100% of my personal services provided during the year was performed in a real property trade or business in which I materially participated.